Definitely off of last year's pace, but still cleared 100. Of course, I think like 44 of them were NES games, so there's that.

Tallying up my beaten games time, it took me 630 hours or so to get through the 119 games. I spent more time with a few after I beat them, though, like Mario Odyssey and BotW, so that number is probably around 700 for the games listed. That puts me at an average of about two hours per day playing video games, which isn't quite as bad as I expected. If we assume that I played other stuff (which I did!), perhaps that number jumps to 1000 hours? So three hours per day. Seems relatively sustainable considering I don't watch a ton of TV.

Why am I still posting in the 2017 thread? Because I beat this game on December 31 and didn't get a chance to post about it until today.

Might and Magic 4 and 5 are so deeply intertwined that it can be tough to separate them, but as I already talked about 4 on its own, I'm gonna take some time to talk about 5, which continues to improve on 4. It feels like there is a lot more content in 5, since there is a whole new system of walkways in the clouds over the world, alternate elemental planes, and a bunch of new dungeons. There are even some dungeons with replenishable resources, so you can go back through them for new ore to make equipment, thus giving you an edge in the early game. 5 definitely feels like it was meant to be finished after 4 with the same party though, so if you want to try it, beat 4 first and port folks over. Trust me, you'll need it.

All of this said, 5 also feels like it meanders a bit at times, particularly once you accept the quest to find special magical orbs necessary to restore a particular castle. As this quest pretty much lets you go in any order you want, I found things a bit aimless at times. There is also a lot of side stuff which is fun but unnecessary for advancement, ranging from forts run by giants and ogres, a quest to restore the fountain of youth, the ore mines, and a couple of towns that really only exist as fodder farms for building up levels.

Yet the world feels vast, larger in size than the world of 4 despite being the same size. I attribute this both to the inclusion of extra stuff to do but also the layout, with very large forests, mountain ranges, snowy fields, and a desert that feels better put together than 4's. 5 feels like a world while 4 felt cramped.

Frankly, 4 ultimately feels like an appetizer to 5, and while the hardest dungeons in the game are actually in 4 once you reach 5's post-game content, it comes at a time that makes it feel more like 5 instead. If this is hard to keep straight...yeah, it kind of is. Once you defeat the main storyline of 5, the wrap up involves a lot of world hopping between the two, and it can get a little confusing. It is also confusing on what to do, and the elemental planes formed a stumbling block for me for a while because I didn't realize I had to do specific actions there. Once I figured that out though, it was a rush to the end.

Like I said earlier, it's hard to divorce the two games. 4 and 5 really do need to be played together, because they would feel incomplete without the other. Judge them as a whole and appreciate them that way. I certainly appreciated them.

Also, 4 and 5 are way better than Swords of Xeen. Seriously, don't ruin Swords by trying to do it after the 4/5 combo. That's just setting yourself up for heartbreak. Accept that Swords is gonna have problems and tackle it after 3 instead.

BoneSnapDeez wrote:Nice post Ack. After chugging through these older entries, I'll think you'll find the newer Might and Magic games to be easy peasy. Especially VII, VIII, and IX.

Well, I'm already getting into VI. It's a definite change, but I'm starting to get the hang of the early game and am clearing out a dungeon. I feel my characters are getting better in ways that one or two levels didn't do in earlier M&M games...but it also takes a lot more time to get the necessary experience.

I'll be posting more about my journey through VI in the RPG subforum though. I don't want to muck this thread up with going into what I discover.

...first off this is probably the LEAST number of games I've beaten in a single year in quite a long time. However, I also found that this year I spent a lot of time playing games that you don't beat. Overwatch, Rocket League and Paladins took up probably hundredS of hours of this year for me.

I also found myself spending more time with the games that I did get into. Like say Madden 18 where I played the story mode, played a bunch of online games with a friend, and am currently towards the end of my third season in the franchise mode. Or like how I beat the vanilla Diablo III over the summer, but am now going through the Ultimate Evil Edition co-op with my wife.

I'm pretty cool with all that, though. I don't really care all that much about having a long list of games beaten. I'm happier with the idea that I get a lot of enjoyment out of the games that I do make time for.

No worries, 25 isn't a lot of games to beat either. Between work, travel, comedy stuff, and still focusing a fair bit on multiplayer titles on Steam, I didn't knock out all that I wanted to. Maybe I'll beat more in 2018, or maybe I'll just focus on enjoying what I play and less on beating things. We shall see.